Q:
"I'd like to know how many episodes are sold and what plans
you have..."

JMS:
"For?"

Q:
"Crusade."

JMS:
"Thank you. It's a very long story. There's stuff I can say,
and there's stuff that I can't say. So, I'll tell you what
I can say and lie about what I can't say.

"We
shot 13 episodes. And TNT will be airing those on June 9 at
10:00, starting then and going straight through, more or less.
And we had... they had said they weren't going to do more
beyond that, beyond the 13. We tried at that point to take
it to the SciFi Channel, but it was so late in the game....
It takes a lot of money to be able support an entire season
of a show. The SciFi Channel had already allocated their funds
for the year, so they couldn't pick it up. If the show does
well, the first 13, then it will be considered for a season,
beginning with the second season, on the SciFi Channel. If
the show does well, it will go on.

"As
for more what happened... let me tell you a fairy tale. And
every fairy tale begins with Once Upon A Time...

"...There
was writer of songs in a kingdom. And he wasn't the best writer
of songs on the entire planet. There were others who were
as good or better. And he had written 110 really good songs…
and four or five long odes. And they said, 'Do some more songs
for us.' And he said, 'Sure.' And he began writing more songs.
And those were for this little kingdom which was great. As
were the ministers, who had always before worked with him.

"Then
the King heard about the new songs that were being commissioned.
Not the Emperor. Not the Emperor Theodore and his wife Lady
Jane. I ain't talking about them. I'm talking about the lower
king of a particular land, all right. I don't want the Emperor
getting pissed at me. And he (the King) said, 'Well, I should
be involved creatively.'

"And
thus there came... runners would come with scrolls, which
the singer/songwriter would look at and burn.

"Now
this is just a fairy tale. Okay? This is nothing but a fairy
tale. This is not about Crusade. Okay? I'm just telling you
a story here.

"And
the King became wroth. He waxed Wroth, and Wroth wasn't very
happy about it. Old joke, I'm sorry.

"So
they called for a grand meeting at which, along one long table
were ministers, and emissaries, and ambassadors, and functionaries
and assistants, and programming - uh,... a whole lot of guys.
Now on the other side of the table was the writer of songs.
And they had plenty of these huge scrolls in front of them.
And they began to open the first one.

"And
the writer of songs said, 'no.'

"And
they brought someone in with a book to explain to them what
the word 'no' meant, because they had never heard it before.
And they said, 'no to what?'

"I
said... The writer of songs said, in this imaginary story,
'no to all of it. No to all of it in all its parts and pieces,
from page 1 to page 20. No to all of it.' The writer of songs
felt that what they wanted was, in modern terms, for a moment,
sort of Baywatch meets wrestling in space. Which was not applicable,
exactly, to our fairy tale scenario. (aside: If I ever work
again, it'll be a miracle)

"It
became clear that if the King's emissaries were not properly
responded to, that they may say, 'you can only write 13 songs.'
And the writer of songs said, 'better 13 songs that I can
believe in than 22 that I do not.

"So
there were 13 songs, and the writer of songs has moved to
a different kingdom knowing that the 13 songs were songs that
he wanted to hear. And in the 13th song there was a sub-thread
in the song about people who come in with suggestions, which
is rather similar to the King's situation. Astonishingly,
the King saw the 13th song and didn't realize what it was.

"And
the writer of songs moved to another kingdom and lived happily
ever after.

"And
this has nothing to do with Crusade or your question, but
I thought I'd tell you that story because it amuses me."

Thanks
to Kat for writing this report and thanks to Ranger for sending
it in.